


Plans Gone Awry

by arysthaeniru



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Florists, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 12:45:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3488744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waiting for something to go wrong is generally the more difficult part of his birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plans Gone Awry

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, to my favourite flower captain~

With a slight yawn, Yukimura descended down the stairs, from his apartment, down into the flower, shop, unlocking the front door for his employees. It was five am in the morning, which was far too early for this, really, but he and his employees had to prepare the shop for at least two hours before they could open up for everybody. More so on days where they had large orders. 

Unearthing the dirty gloves from his messy desk was difficult, but Yukimura tapped them off against the bonsai in the corner of his small office and walked out, in time to see Jackal dump his bag by the front desk, as he munched on the last remnants of an apple. “Morning kachou.” Jackal greeted, easily. “The delivery’s already waiting outside, shall I bring it in?”

Yukimura’s eyebrows raised. Usually, he had to wait for Shiraishi. The delivery was early today. “Please do.” said Yukimura, as he searched around for the vases, and the coloured cellophane, so that he and Jackal could start to wrap the bouquets together. Repotting could wait a little, once the morning rush finished. 

As he laid it all out, Jackal bought in two large crates of fresh potted flowers, and Yukimura smiled softly, as he noticed the large set of azaleas, which looked healthier than ever. He’d have to call Shiraishi and ask for a double order of the potted versions of them later, so he could use them in his regular bouquets. 

"This all for Atobe’s order?" asked Jackal, as he placed the third crate down on the flower, and wiped his brow. 

"Yes, he’s holding a party today, some large dinner." said Yukimura, dismissively, as he quickly signed off the usual cheque of a hundred and fifty USD. As annoying as Atobe could be to deal with sometimes, there was no doubting that he and his well-in-advance orders were good for business. Not to mention he always gave credit where credit was due, and Yukimura usually gained more customers from Atobe’s recommendations. "Give this to Shiraishi-kun, would you?" he said, passing the cheque to Jackal.

Jackal shook his head. “Oh no, he said that this was on the house, today, as a birthday gift.”

Yukimura looked up, with a little surprise. This was a large order to dismiss. Still, he wasn’t going to complain about having to spend less money than usual. That was unusually good luck on his birthday, which was usually a day of chaos. “Alright. ” said Yukimura, with a faint smile, as he brushed some hair behind his ear. “I’ll have to thank him later.”

Jackal’s eyes brightened a little. “Actually…” he said, as he reached for his bag again, and pulled out a small box. “Fresh from my oven. You were complaining about the lack of good _galettes de roi_ , so I made one from a recipe online.” he said, as he slid the flaky pastry inside a small box to Yukimura. 

Yukimura accepted the box, with a warm smile. “I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. Thank you, I’m sure I’ll love it.” he said, placing it on his table. It was still a little early and he’d just downed down an entire coffee, but he was sure that once they finished this work, he’d be ready to eat. “For now, I think we’d better start making the bouquets and arrangements.”

Jackal nodded, as he rolled up his sleeves. “Looks like it’s going to be tough.”

Yukimura tossed an apron towards Jackal and headed towards his office again for the ribbons and scissors. 

-

Yukimura was almost finished with tying up the last bunch of flowers, when two cold, rough hands closed over his eyes. “Niou.” warned Yukimura, his hands stilling against the flower. It wouldn’t do to ruin this bouquet. It wouldn’t quite be a disaster on the level of most of his birthdays, but Yukimura didn’t want his quality to be shabbier than its usual pristine condition. 

"Happy Birthday~" Niou sung, as he removed his hands, with a grin. "Yags wishes you a birthday too, and says that next time you get injured, you should go and see a real doctor."

Yukimura chuckled as he finished the last knot, and carefully placed it back inside the crate. “Real doctors ask a lot more questions. Do you really want to have to explain the entire narrative of exactly how Akaya managed to smash a pot so finally over the side of his head that it created a gash right across his cheek?” he asked, sweetly, tilting his head to the side. 

Niou grinned, in return, without much remorse. “As long as I don’t have to do it, sounds like fun.”

Yukimura removed one of his gloves and firmly smacked the top of Niou’s hair with it, not even worrying about the small clots of dirt left on Niou’s bleached hair. “Go get your apron on, the customers will start showing up for the morning rush.”

"Yes boss." said Niou, dryly, as he departed, and Yukimura headed to his small office, to retrieve Jackal’s present. As he’d thought, he was a lot more hungry now, but upon pushing into his room, the pastry was the last thing on his mind. Was that a brand new easel and palette perched against the back wall of his room? How had that gotten in here? Yukimura and Jackal had been working in the front lobby….

There was a small golden star stuck to the side of the easel, which simply read “Puri~” in Yagyuu’s neat, looping script. Yukimura just laughed, softly, and admired the easel once more. It had an adjustable height and the palette was huge. It would be perfect for his outdoor painting ventures. He’d had to thank both Niou and Yagyuu in some way later. 

Whistling slightly, Yukimura grabbed the pastry and a fork, before making his way to front desk, to precede over the morning rush, of businessmen wanting to get bouquets for the office, or for a particular speaker at their workplace. 

-

"I’m off, kachou!" called Jackal, as he passed Yukimura, who was finishing ringing up the customer’s purchase. "I’ll be late for class, otherwise."

"Alright, then! Don’t forget to check your email, I sent you the revised schedule for the White Day plans, you’ll need to be here an hour earlier!" Yukimura called, as he smiled widely at his customer, and handed her the purchase. Niou strolled out from the garden, carrying the large bag of fertilizer easily in one hand, and a flower crown made from daisies in the other. 

Yukimura laughed upon seeing that, and graciously tipped his head so Niou could place it carefully on his blue, curly hair. “Is this what you do instead of working? asked Yukimura, with little heat in his voice. 

"Only on days that end with a y." Niou said, cheerfully, as he walked over to the front display. "Is Bun-chan showing up today?"

"He said he’d be late, he had some morning lab procedure and he needed to see the professor afterwards." Yukimura said, gently, as he adjusted his flower crown again, with a little amusement. Honestly, he hadn’t worn one of these since he was twelve and his little sister had made him one. Still, he supposed he could let it lie. 

And perhaps make a much nicer one later, if there was a lull today. 

"Ahh geez, is the slacker failing his classes again?" asked Niou, over his shoulder.

"Not everyone is a math genius like you, Niou." said Yukimura, his voice faintly chiding. "Bunta has his own talents."

"Like stuffing his face?" asked Niou, slyly. Of course, because Murphy’s Law was always in effect, Marui walked in through the doors at that exact moment and aimed a kick towards the crouching Niou, which Niou managed to avoid, easily. No displays destroyed, which Yukimura had been expecting. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. 

"Oh, shut up!" grumbled Marui, as he dumped his stuff next to the front desk, and adjusted the large box in his hands. "One huge birthday cake, with strawberries and raspberries as requested. Happy birthday, kachou~" he said, smiling at Yukimura anyway. 

Yukimura accepted the box carefully, with a wide smile, as he glanced in at the cake through the lid and saw the neat piping of the roses. “As always, thank you, Bunta. Would you mind taking over the front desk for a second? I’m going upstairs to put this in the fridge.”

"Sure thing, kachou." Marui said, popping a piece of gum into his mouth and glaring at Niou, who only grinned in response. Yukimura walked up the stairs, a little faster than usual, to make sure that the two didn’t kill each other in his absence. It was easier to have Jackal, Marui and Niou all together on shift, but you couldn’t have everything, and since most of his employees were still in school, they needed to study as well. 

Avoiding his large, black cat sprawled out on the landing of the stairs, Yukimura walked over to his kitchen, and shoved the cake inside it, frowning slightly at the lack of milk. That was a problem he would need to resolve later. Maybe if things were slow, he could send Marui out for milk. That was acceptable usage of college students, right?

He quickly made it back down, in time to see that absolutely nothing had happened. Yukimura was almost disappointed, then decided it would probably have been too much effort to pull them apart and deal with any damage done. Besides, then he would have had to reschedule his entire employee schedule, and that might have been too much trouble. Still, after that insult, they were almost strangely calm. There wasn’t even any tension in the air like there usually was when they were at least trying to behave like adults. Yukimura’s mouth twitched to the side for a moment, with confusion, before he decide to just enjoy the peace. 

"Go water the plants, Bunta." said Yukimura, as he took his place back behind the front desk again, and picked up his pen, in order to try and sketch the movements of Niou as he stretched and added fertilizer to the plants. 

"Yes kachou." Marui said, easily, as he blew a bubble and got to work. 

-

"Kaaaaaccchhoouuuuuu!" came the loud exclamation from the front room. He always heard Akaya approaching before he actually ever saw his wayward employee. If Akaya wasn’t so good with plants and photography for the website, Yukimura was sure that he might have fired him a long time for just being so _loud_. Still, the high school student was endearing and funny, and as annoying as his antics sometimes were, Yukimura would miss him. 

"If something’s broken, it goes on your account!" called Yukimura, as he pulled out the red ribbon roll that the customer had requested to be wrapped around his bouquet. 

"No! I didn’t do it, I swear!" Akaya said shaking his hands and head furiously, as Yukimura emerged back to the main room to see Akaya still waiting in his school uniform. "Atobe-san’s here!"

Yukimura tilted his head and nodded. “Hmm, why don’t you wrap up our customer’s purchase, and I’ll go deal with it.” he said, quietly, as he passed the red ribbon to Akaya and walked out of the door, grabbing one of the crates hiding behind the display, so people wouldn’t accidentally try to purchase it.

One of Atobe’s many butlers waited by the small SUV and nodded at Yukimura. “Atobe-sama regrets that his dinner party was so ill-timed, but he couldn’t cancel, birthday or not. He sends his condolences, and wishes you a very happy birthday.” said the butler, handing Yukimura a small envelope. Yukimura placed the crate inside the boot of the SUV and accepted the envelope, curiously. 

"Tell Atobe that I’m grateful, as ever, for his patronage." said Yukimura, inclining his head a little, as he walked back for the the other crates. Once he’d loaded the third crate into the back of the butler’s car, he waved a goodbye. However, the butler didn’t move.

"Atobe-sama requested that you open it in front of me."

Yukimura raised an eyebrow, as he slit open the envelope. An overly large tip, even for a larger floral display like this, typical Atobe. And was that… “Bastard.” Yukimura breathed, as he stared at the ticket for Wagner, and the small note, which read: _French wine and front row seats for a display of Real Art, courtesy of yours truly. No need to thank me._ Bastard! “You can tell him that his real art is unfortunately as common as an escort, which reduces the value of anything.” he said, sweetly, which made the corner of the butler’s mouth twitch.

"As you wish, sir. Good day." said the butler, as he got into the car and departed. Yukimura’s lip curled up as he walked back inside, but he couldn’t help think that he would probably enjoy an evening of snark with Atobe, anyway. 

Akaya was at the front desk, whistling the theme-tune to Star Wars, loudly and offtune, when Yukimura returned, and the customer was long gone. “Did you tie it well?” asked Yukimura as he came to relieve Akaya of front desk duty. Few of his employees enjoyed it, and while it wasn’t Yukimura’s favourite occupation either, he was able to endure it with more humour than the others.

"Yeah! I did it with a boy scout knot, and she thought it was cool!" Akaya said, with a grin. 

Yukimura smiled, softly. “That’s always good.” He’d been expecting more disaster and was pleasantly surprised to see otherwise. “Did you bring your camera, today? I wanted you to take a picture of the front display, I think Bunta’s choice yesterday was very well-chosen.”

"Alright!" said Akaya, with a grin, as he reached for his professional camera from his bag, before turning around and pointing at Yukimura. Yukimura only just managed to get a smile up before the flash went off and he sighed, remembering the daisy crown still on his head. 

"Let me look good, at least." Yukimura chided, as he brushed back the stray bits of his hair to tuck neatly behind his ears and adjusted the daisy crown so the least-wilted side was tilted towards the camera. 

"You should make a prettier one." said Akaya, cheerfully, as he took another picture and examined it in the viewing screen, not showing it to Yukimura. "I’ll take the picture for the front of the shop, then I’ll come back." He practically bounced out of the room, and Yukimura chuckled, softly. 

Now, how did you make flower crowns again? He reached forward for some tulips and some roses, and a few of those lovely azaleas, and carefully wove them together, careful to not bend too much and snap their stems. One thing about daisies that was good, was their their stems were always nice and flexible, which wasn’t always the same for other flowers. Just as he finished weaving the last flower into the wreath, Akaya came back in, loudly talking with a very familiar face. 

"Fuji-kun." greeted Yukimura, with a small wave, at the professional photographer, ignoring the slightly amused smirk at Yukimura’s flower crown. "Placing an order?"

"Yes, that’s right. I need a greenery stage for one of my photoshoots." Fuji said, as he picked up a pen and started to write down what he wanted. Yukimura knew that Fuji knew the flowers he wanted well enough, so didn’t interrupt his choices, like he usually did with other customers. Akaya who’d been impatiently bouncing at the side, turned to Yukimura and snapped another picture. This time, Yukimura had been more ready for it, and managed a pretty smile.

"Ahh, this one looks cool, kachou!" Akaya said, with a grin, as he turned it around to show Yukimura bathed in the soft glow of the afternoon light. Hmm, not bad at all, Akaya was getting even better at taking photos with nice composition and clarity. 

"Mmm, very pretty." said Fuji, with an amused laugh, glancing over his shoulder with a little curiosity. "You’re sure you won’t be one of my models?"

Yukimura remembered how he’d walked into Echizen and Fuji doing something rather inappropriate in the studio and exactly how skimpy Tezuka’s outfit had been the last time he’d seen one of the editorials. “I’ll pass.” he said, with a dangerously sweet smile. “The shop keeps me busy enough.”

Fuji’s smirk was just a little bit too knowing, as he finished the order sheet. “There.” he said, gently. “Happy Birthday, by the way.” he said, passing Yukimura a small box from the inside of his smart blazer. 

"Thank you, Fuji-kun." said Yukimura, relaxing into a slightly more normal smile, as he opened the box, and smiled softly at the small butterfly keychain, to add to the end of his phone. His birthday this year was remarkably prosperous. He was amazed that nothing had blown up yet, like last year and the gas leak. There hadn’t even been small bits of trouble, beyond bickering. 

Something definitely wrong, if it was nearing the end of the day and nothing had gone wrong. “Akaya, would you go and fetch some of the pots for me from the back garden?” asked Yukimura, absently, as he rummaged among the mess of decorations on the front desk to reach for his phone. 

There was one message, from Sanada, telling Yukimura that he might have to reschedule their dinner to tomorrow or the day after and that Renji was going to be out too late to come. Yukimura’s teeth clenched together, slightly, in suppressed annoyance. Really? Sanada had extra work today? They’d _always_ celebrated each other’s birthday together, albeit, usually while dealing with some sort of disaster or paperwork. And Renji was even more frustrating, because he hadn’t really been able to get hold of him for almost a month now. At least he occasionally saw Sanada. 

Rolling his eyes, Yukimura sent a capitalized Okay message, with a full stop, and all, to show exactly how displeased he was. Yukimura rarely used proper grammar in any of his quick texts. Then, to calm himself, he attached the small butterfly to the edge of his phone and waited for Akaya to return, inhaling the smell of freesias and roses.

When Akaya came back, with the large stack of haphazard pots balanced in his arms, not a single one fell or even wavered. Yukimura frowned a little more, but sat down with Akaya anyway, to start some potting for tomorrow. 

-

When the clock finally hit seven, Yukimura stretched upwards from where theyw ere cleaign up the potting and yawned. “Well then, Akaya,” he said, cheerily, “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

"Bye kachou!" said Akaya, with a cheerful grin, as he shoved the broomstick against the wall, and practically ran for his school stuff. "I’ll send you the photos stuff tomorrow morning!"

"Don’t stay up too late playing video games! And do your homework, or else you’ll get in trouble again!" called Yukimura after the younger boy’s retreating back, but Akaya was already gone. Yukimura shook his head, and locked up the front door, careful to sweep the last of the escaped dirt outside first. Then, he shut off the lights downstairs and clambered upstairs, smiling slightly as his cat came out of the kitchen to greet him.

"Hiya." he said, reaching down to scratch her behind the ears. "You’re probably hungry, huh? How about we both have a quiet night of fish?"

The cat meowed in assent, and Yukimura’s mouth pulled up into a quiet smile. It hadn’t been a bad birthday. He was rather happy about it, even if he was rather irritated that both of his best friends hadn’t managed to do anything. Ah well. Life got busy, and Yukimura was just happy for a birthday that didn’t involve police, hospitals or paperwork. 

Just as he was about to reach into his fridge for the cake he’d been hoping to share with Renji and Sanada that evening, his phone rung, rather loudly. Yukimura sighed, shut the fridge door and padded over to where his phone lay. “Yes, hello, Yukimura speaking?” he asked, not bothering to look at the caller ID. 

"Seiichi? Are you at home at the moment?" asked Renji’s voice, and besides himself, Yukimura found himself smiling a little. At least Renji had been decent enough to call him, even if he couldn’t make it. 

"Yes, obviously. I need to eat somehow." he said, as he leant back against his kitchen counter. "What are you doing?"

"I’m going to text you an address, can you please show up? It’s urgent." Renji said, and he sounded rather panicked. Yukimura straightened a little. And there was that trouble he had been expecting. "Renji? What’s going on?" he demanded, but his best friend had already hung up. There was a text of an address close to the movie theatre in town, and Yukimura’s eyebrow rose. 

"Sorry, looks like it’s catfood for you, again. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.’ sad Yukimura, as he reached for the bag from his pantry shelf, tipped some out and placed it back, very quickly. His cat meowed in protest, but Yukimura just gave it a commiserating look, as he grabbed his jacket and clattered down the stairs.

Stupid cryptic best friends. It was so urgent that he couldn’t even give Yukimura a ten second resume of what was going to happen, hm? Well, whatever. He’d chew out Renji once he got there. Yukimura slipped into the deliveries van for the flower shop, and backed out of the tight parallel parking spot in front of his shop. 

It took around ten minutes for Yukimura to drive over, in which his stress reached new levels of confusion. What the hell was happening that was so urgent? When he arrived there was no signs of billowing smoke, no signs of the zombie apocalypse having started or even a gas leak. Everything looked normal, with Renji sitting outside what looked like a small italian restaurant, shivering in a thin jacket. 

"If your emergency is that you didn’t bring a jacket, I swear to my heavenly father, Yanagi Re—" Yukimura started as he got out of the car and stalked over to his best friend, before he was cut off by Renji carefully pressing a large, heavily wrapped bundle into Yukimura’s hands. 

"Happy Birthday, Seiichi." Renji said, softly. "I remember you wanted this a couple of months ago."

Yukimura stared at Renji for a moment, before he opened the packet, and gasped softly at the huge anthology of all of Monet’s collected works, along with works inspired by Monet and some flower pressings by Renoir. “Oh Renji, you shouldn’t have…” he murmured. As he remembered, that had been rater expensive. 

"I wanted to." Renji said, softly. "I am assuming that it will not even out my absence on many days, but I am at least hoping that it will remove the edge. he said, softly and Yukimura surged forward to pull Renji into a hug. 

"There wasn’t really some emergency, was there?" asked Yukimura, as he inhaled the scent that was uniquely Renji’s, and smiled into Renji’s shoulder

"No." said Renji, as his hands came to rest around Yukimura’s waist, in a loose embrace. "Genichirou and I also didn’t have to work late."

Yukimura pulled away from Renji in surprise, and Renji smiled, a little guiltily. “He and the others are waiting inside. Surprise.” the brunet said, rather anticlimactically, and Yukimura took great pleasure in thwapping Renji’s side with the heavy book. 

"I told you I didn’t want anything big!" said Yukimura, but he was smiling despite himself. Stupid best friends, and their surprise parties hidden as a disaster waiting to happen.

"Come on." said Renji, as they walked in, past the waitress, who smiled at them both. They waked back to a backroom, where most of his friends were gathered, already with drinks in hand. Sanada was waiting at the head of the table and Yukimura punched his shoulder.

"I was so pissed off." said Yukimura in explanation and Sanada didn’t even have the decency to look properly guilty! 

"You got over it." Sanada retorted, as he held out a small box. Inside, was a tiny pendant of a sunflower and Yukimura’s smile increased. He’d explained, in detail on Greenery Day, the significance of sunflowers to Sanada, and he knew that his best friend had definitely caught onto it and remembered it. 

He reached forward to pull Sanada into a hug. “Thank you.” he whispered, happily, as he smiled at all of his friends. This was perhaps the least eventful birthday ever and Yukimura couldn’t have been more gratef—

There was a large wail, and the lights started flashing in the room. Then a loud beeping started and Yukimura’s smile became more fixed on his face. “Is that a fire alarm?” asked Yagyuu, standing up, looking rather concerned. Yukimura’s smile became positively deadly, as he glared in the direction of the kitchens. Really? Not even one birthday?! He hadn’t even gotten a drink yet!

"Come on, let’s go." said Marui, pulling Akaya from his chair and everybody made their way to depart,. Yukimura’s grip on the wrapping of Renji’s gift only increased, and the sound of the crunching paper was fuel to his anger. Not. Even. One. Birthday.

"Your heavenly father really doesn’t like you very much." said Yagyuu, with a commiserating smile, as they all huddle outside and waited for the fire department to arrive. 

"Mmm. Perhaps he’s asking for a human sacrifice on my birthday or something." returned Yukimura, with the most beatific smile he could muster. Yagyuu took a tiny step back and Yukimura felt a little more vindicated as Sanada’s arm slipped over his shoulders. 

"Next time, we are getting the disaster out of the way by having it at the beginning of the day, okay?" said Yukimura, between gritted teeth. Sanada just nodded, grimly.


End file.
